Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of th Right now

From the back cover:
When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L.Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West - a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

Review:
This book turned out to be something other than what I was expecting and I'm not sure if that unmet expectation is what has made it so disappointing for me. I think I was expecting a kind of child's story or something more mythical or fantastical than what it is. I wasn't expecting to read such a politically oriented story, written for an adult audience.

This book is an example of the kind of writing that I am often left nonplussed about. I didn't like it, but for all intents and purposes there is nothing wrong with it. It is a great story, it is a clever re-imagining of the tale of the Wicked Witch and it is written with great skill with no glaring errors jumping off the page and making me dislike it. But there is something missing, and that something is feeling and emotion. It isn't as if the book is written without events and descriptions designed to evoke emotion, there are plenty of them in it, but I just couldn't connect to them. I couldn't develop any emotional attachment to the characters or feel anything much about the events that unfolded. Ultimately I was unable to care about what happened to the characters, and that left me feeling a bit bored with it all. I have heard that the follow on story 'Son of a Witch' is much better, but this one left me so cold that I don't think I'll go out of my way to read it, or any other books by Gregory Maguire.Get more detail about Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of th.